AIRCRAFT DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION GROUP

V
SHORT TO MEDIUM RANGE JET AIRCRAFT

STUDIES ON GROSS TAKE-OFF WEIGHT AND WING

GEOMETRY

STUDIES ON GROSS TAKE-OFF WEIGHT

W0 = WCREW+ WPAYLOAD+ WFUEL+ WEMPTY

W0 = WCREW+ WPAYLOAD
1 - (Wf/W0) -(WE/W0)

(WE/W0) = a*W0^(C)
For the aircraft type assigned to us, A=1.51 or 1.02 and
C=-0.10
To estimate the fuel weight, approximate weight of the
aircraft at various points of time of the flight has to be
calculated. A pre fixed mission plan is taken up,
depending on the day to day requirements and simple
calculus is used to analyse each phase of flight, thus
mentioning the amount of fuel consumed during
different time intervals.

Mission of our aircraft-

Aircraft(W0) is rolled out to the tarmac, taxies and
takes-off(W1) with 180 passengers and 9 crew members
including pilot and co-pilot. Then, it climbs(W2) and
cruises(W3) for 4000 to 5000 K.m. to destination.
Getting an alert from ATC about the crowded runway,
the aircraft loiters(W4) for two hours and then lands(W5)
after getting a green signal from ATC.
NOTE: the data in brackets depict the weight of the
aircraft at the end of various phases of flight. The flight
phase name precedes the brackets.
The mission’s schematic is shown below...

while refering to statistical tables, the designer finds

the following facts:-
(W1/W0) = 0.970 (W2/W1) = 0.985
(W3/W2) = exp(-(R*tsfc)/(Vcr*(CL/CD))) ............R in mts
and tsfc in /sec
(W4/W3) = exp(-(E*tsfc)/(CL/CD)) ..............E in sec and
tsfc in /sec
(W5/W4) = 0.995
The task assigned to us is to design a short to medium
range aircraft (of B737 type or DC-9 type). These
aircrafts are found to use a (CL/CD) max value of 15 to
18. A value of 17 will be chosen for the ongoing aircraft
design.

For jet transport aircrafts, the avg. value of thrust

specific fuel consumption(tsfc) is found to be 0.5 per
hour during cruise and 0.4 per hour during loitering
near the airport, as the aircraft will use high bypass
ratio turbofan engines.

For the similar class of aircrafts, it is found that the

(CL/CD) value is 86.60% of the maximum value
during cruise, while the maximum value is used when
the aircraft has to ensure long endurance hours.

Other than the crew, payload and the empty weight, 6

% reserve fuel weight is added to the total fuel weight
required for a particular mission. Hence the expression
for fuel weight fraction can be given by:

(Wf/W0)= 1.06*(1-(Wmission/W0)).

where (Wmission/W0)= (W1/W0)(W2/W1)(W3/W2)(W4/W3)

(W5/W4).
ESTIMATING WCREW AND WPAYLOAD :

WCREW+ WPAYLOAD = weight of 180 passengers + weight

of 6 aircrew members + weight of 2pilots and 1 flight
attendent + luggage weight of every person onboard +
misc. luggage

=(180*80)+ (6*70) +(3*70) +(180 *47) +

(180*9)+(6*15) +(3*15) +(2000)

= 27245 kg. = 60544.45 lbs.

Now, after this estimation, the weight fractions are

calculated based on the mission plan and the fuel
weight fraction is decided.
The results obtained for the above mission are as
follows:
(W1/W0)= 0.970, (W2/W1)=0.985, (W3/W2)= 0.851 (for
4000 K.m. range)
(W4/W3)= 0.954 (for E of 2 hrs.), (W5/W4)= 0.995

Hence, (Wf/W0)=1.06*(1-
(0.970*0.985*0.851*0.954*0.995)) = 0.241.

Using the above values, the gross takeoff weight of the

aircraft can be calculated by an iterative process, giving
W0 as:

W0 = 27245
1 - (0.241) -(1.02*W0-0.10)
which on solving gives W0 = 64558.59 kg =
143463.53 lbs

Hence, the weight of fuel is 0.241 * 64558.59 kg =

15558.62 kg.
or 34574.71 lbs
AIRFOIL SECTION AND WING CHARACTERISTICS
For a medium to short range airliner, the following wing
parameters can be selected:
Aspect ratio =9.00
wing span =33.0 mts
wing area =121.00 mt2
taper ratio = 0.240
quarter chord sweep = 25.0o
root chord = 4.80 mt.
tip chord = 1.15 mt.
dihedral angle= 5o(establishes roll stability and ensures
engine nacelle clearance)
(t/c)ratio =0.12 for root (approx)
0.65 for tip(approx)
High Lift device= Double slotted flaps at the trailing
edge
Kruger flaps at the leading edge.
The low wing configuration is being selected (to reduce
cabin noise and facilitates easy maintenance and repair
work of engines.)

During the phase of preliminary design of the wing,

choice of the airfoil section holds key importance. The
chosen airfoils, must produce favourable pressure
gradients (high aerodynamic efficiency) for a
considerable range of angle of attacks. The airfoils
must ensure laminar flow over most of the part of the
wing.

For the initial designs, CL max of 1.3 for the airfoils can be
chosen. The aircraft being designed has a cruise Mach
number of 0.80.Hence, a logical choice would be to
select supercritical airfoils. Seeing the (t/c)ratio values,
it is convenient to choose different airfoils for root and
tip.
AIRFOILS CHOSEN: ROOT: NACA 64(1)-212(a=0.6)
TIP : NACA 63(1)-206(a=0.6)

NACA63(1)-206

NACA 64(1)-212

NOTE: NACA 6 SERIES AIRFOIL TERMINOLOGY:

First digit stands for the series number, the second digit shows the point
of minimum pressure on the airfoil in tenths of chord, the number in
bracket shows the range of CL that ensures favourable pressure gradient
about the design lift coefficient, third digit shows the design lift coefficient
and the last two digits show the max thickness to chord ratio in %.

Checking the requirement for high lift devices:

FLE = (Mg/S)0/ cos (Λ1/4) = 64558.59/cos(25) = 5775.07 N/m2

the value obtained is more than 5500 N/m2, which necessitates the use of high
lift devices.
critical Mach number 3D is given by:
Mcrt3d = (0.89 -(t/c))/sqrt(cos (Λ1/4) ).........putting the values, it is found
Mcrt3d= 0.8088.

also, by an emperical formula,

Λ1/4 = cos-1((1.22(0.89-(t/c))2) = 26.050 which holds good with the assumed
value.

LIFTING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WING

The unstick lift coefficient during take off can be given as:
CLus = 0.8*(1.3+ dle + dte)* cos (Λ1/4)
dle= increment in lift coefficient when leading edge devices are
employed = 0.4 in this case
dte=increment in lift coefficient when trailing edge devices are
employed = 0.7 in this case

CLus = 1.74 for the aircraft being designed.

CLa = lift coefficient while landing is given by:

CLa = 0.6*(1.3+ dle + dte)* cos (Λ1/4) and dle= 0.6 and dte=
1.35
which gives CLa = 0.9063.
The above landing lift coefficient is calculated on the
fact that landing takes place at 1.3 times the stalling
speed of the aircraft, which occurs at CLmax= (1.3+ dle
+ dte)* cos (Λ1/4)= 2.175.

Hence the stalling speed of the aircraft is

Vstall = sqrt((2*W0)/(d*S* CLmax))

which is equal to 20 m/sec.(with all the high lift devices

engaged)

whereas it increases to 26 m/s when no high lift device

is used.

DRAG CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WING

The wetted area factor for jet airliners can be assumed to be

5.5, and the aircraft type factor can be taken to be 1.1.(The
aircraft type factor shows effectively the departure of the shape
from the streamlined ideal).

a) Zero lift drag coefficient:

Cdz= 0.005(1-2*a/ Rw)*τ *(1-(0.2*Mn)+0.12*(Mn*sqrt(cos (Λ1/4))/(Af-
(t/c)))20) *Rw*Tf*S-0.10
τ = wing thickness correction factor=(((Rw-2)/Rw)
3
+(1.9/Rw)*(1+0.526*(4*t/c) )))
and the value is found to be very close to 1.
a= factor that depicts the portion of the airfoil under the laminar flow regime.
and will be taken as 0.6 as per the chosen airfoils.

Hence,Cdz is found to be.......0.01281.

b) Drag due to lift:

Cdl= (CL2 /(pi*A))*((1+0.12*Mn6)*(1+
((0.142+f(λ)A(10t/c)0.33)/cos (Λ1/4)2) + (0.1*(3Ne +1)/(4+A)0.8)))

where f(λ) = 0.005(1+ 1.5*(λ-0.6)2)

and holds a value of 0.0060 in this case of design.
Ne is the number of engines on the top surface of the wing.
hence the drag due to lift Cdl is calculated as........CL2 *0.045.